Harry J. Elam is the Olive H. Palmer Professor in the Humanities, and the Freeman-Thornton Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. He is author of "Taking it to the Streets: The Social Protest Theater of Luis Valdez and Amiri Baraka"; "The Past as Present in the Drama of August Wilson", winner of the Errol Hill Award; and co-editor of "African American Performance and Theater History: A Critical Reader"; "Colored Contradictions: An Anthology of Contemporary African American Drama"; "The Fire This Time: African American Plays for the New Millennium" and "Black Cultural